Seventh generation
The seventh generation started in 2005 and is ongoing. Best known consoles are the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony Playstation 3. Consoles Microsoft Xbox 360 Microsoft Xbox 360 was released at November 16, 2005 in Canada and United States, December 2, 2005 in Europe, Middle East and Africa, December 10, 2005 in Japan and March 23, 2006 in Australia and New Zealand. Known during development as Xbox Next, Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox, the Xbox 360 was conceived in early 2003. In February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and was headed by Microsoft's Vice President James Allard. That month, Microsoft held an event for 400 developers in Bellevue, Washington to recruit support for the system. Also that month, Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, joined Microsoft. On August 12, 2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, a deal which was publicly announced two days later. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apple´s Power Mac G5 hardware. This was due to the system's PowerPC 970 processor running the same PowerPC architecture that the Xbox 360 would eventually run under IBM's Xenon processor. The cores of the Xenon processor were developed using a slightly-modified version of the Playstation 3's Cell Processor PPE architecture. According to David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, the IBM employees were "hiding" their work from Sony and Toshiba. Nintendo Wii Nintendo Wii was released at November 19, 2006 in North America, December 2, 2006 in Japan, December 7, 2006 in Australia and December 8, 2006 in Europe. The console was conceived in 2001, as the Nintendo Gamecube was first seeing release. According to an interview with Nintendo's game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the concept involved focusing on a new form of player interaction. "The consensus was that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction. Two years later, engineers and designers were brought together to develop the concept further. By 2005, the controller interface had taken form, but a public showing at that year's E3 was withdrawn. Miyamoto stated that, "We had some troubleshooting to do. So we decided not to reveal the controller and instead we displayed just the console. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata later unveiled and demonstrated the Wii Remote at the September Tokyo Game Show. The Nintendo DS is said to have influenced the Wii design. Designer Ken'ichiro Ashida noted, "We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype." The idea was eventually rejected, with the notion that the two gaming systems would be identical. Miyamoto also expressed that, "...if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board. The console was known by the code name of "Revolution" until April 27, 2006, immediately prior to E3. The Nintendo Style Guide refers to the console as "simply Wii, not Nintendo Wii", making it the first home console Nintendo has marketed outside of Japan without the company name featured in its trademark. While "Wiis" is a commonly used plurarization of the console, Nintendo has stated that the official plural form is "Wii systems" or "Wii consoles. Nintendo's spelling of "Wii" with two lower-case "i" characters is meant to resemble two people standing side by side, representing players gathering together, as well as to represent the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The company has given many reasons for this choice of name since the announcement; however, the best known is: Despite Nintendo's justification for the name, some video game developers and members of the press reacted negatively towards the change. They preferred "Revolution" over "Wii" and Forbes expressed fear "that the name would convey a continued sense of 'kidiness' (sic) to the console. The BBC reported the day after the name was announced that "a long list of puerile jokes, based on the name," had appeared on the Internet. Nintendo of America's president Reggie-Films Aime acknowledged the initial reaction and further explained the change: Nintendo of America's then-Vice President of Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan defended its choice of "Wii" over "Revolution" and responded to critics of the name by stating, "Live with it, sleep with it, eat with it, move along with it and hopefully they'll arrive at the same place. Sony PlayStation 3 Sony PlayStation 3 was released at November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and March 23, 2007 in Europe. Sony officially unveiled the PlayStation 3 (then marketed as PLAYSTATION 3) to the public along with its original boomerang style controller on May 16, 2005, during the E3 2005 conference. A functional version of the system was not present there, nor at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although demonstrations (such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) were held at both events on software development kits and comparable personal computer hardware. Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown (notably a Final Fantasy VII tech demo). The initial prototype shown in May 2005 featured two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports; however, when the system was shown again a year later at E3 2006, these were reduced to one HDMI port, one Ethernet port and four USB ports, presumably to cut costs. Two hardware configurations were also announced for the console: a 20 GB model and a 60 GB model, priced at US$499 (€499) and US$599 (€599), respectively. The 60 GB model was to be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and a chrome trim with the logo in silver. Both models were announced for a simultaneous worldwide release: November 11 for Japan and November 17 for North America and Europe. On September 6, 2006, Sony announced that the PAL region PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, due to a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray drive. At the Tokyo Game Show on September 22, 2006, Sony announced that it would include an HDMI port on the 20 GB system, but a chrome trim, flash card readers, silver logo and Wi-Fi would not be included. Also, the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%, and the 60 GB model was announced for an open pricing scheme in Japan. During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PlayStation 3 games running on final hardware. Zeebo Zeebo was released at June 25, 2009 in Brazil, November 10, 2009 in Mexico and will be released 2010 in Russia and India and 2011 in China. The Zeebo was first announced in November 2008 in Rio de Janerio, Brazil and went on sale there in limited quantities on June 1, 2009 with a suggested retail price of R$ 499,00 (Brazilian reals). In September of the same year the price was cut to R$ 399,00 and the price was reduced again in November to R$299,00 (~165USD). The console was distributed nationwide in Brazil in December 2009. By the end of 2009, there were 28 games launched for Zeebo in Brazil. The Zeebo was launched in Mexico in November 2009. It shipped to national retailers across the country on 4 November 2009, with a suggested price of 2,499 Mexican pesos (approximately $205 US). The price was cut to 2249 pesos (approx. $184 US) in April 2010. The company's stated intention was to create an affordable console with inexpensive games delivered via wireless digital distribution to circumvent piracy. There are no DVDs and cartridges; games and other content are downloaded wirelessly over broadband cellular networks. In addition to games, the Zeebo system also provides Internet connectivity, enabling users to access educational and information content, communicate via e-mail and do social networking (this capability is currently supported in Mexico only). Zeebo has attracted a growing list of game titles from companies such as Activision, Capcom, Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, Fishlabs, Flying Tiger, Gamevil, G-Mode, Glu, ID Software, Limbic Software, Namco, Polarbit, Popcap, Twelve Interactive and Vega Mobile.